Welcome to Round 100,000 of a sparring match that is destined to end never. In this corner is Daniel Mingo, “recovering” homosexual and founder of Abba's Delight. And in this corner is an estimated 9 million gay Americans, who claim they would rather fight than switch.

Scratch that. The going scientific hypothesis among militant gays is that they can’t switch — that, to quote advice columnist and same-sex marriage proponent Dear Abby, “they are born that way.”

From Abby to Abba, which brings us back to Mingo. His message, emblazoned on a billboard in Louisville, Ky., reads, "Not everyone who is gay is happy. You have options."

Mingo, who "walked away from homosexuality 21 years ago because I knew it wasn't in line with God's will for my life," explains that his message is specifically geared toward “people who have same sex attractions that are unwanted." It is with an eye toward helping such individuals that Mingo founded Abba's Delight, a ministry and halfway house of sorts.

Mingo is very explicit about whom Abba’s Delight is out to serve:

[O]ur ministry doesn't go after people who are happy being gay. In fact, we don't go after people at all — they come to us.

It’s hard to see why anyone would find that objectionable, but according to station WDRB, the billboard has ruffled quite a few feathers. One of the angry birds who finds the billboard offenseive is a man named Chris Hartman, who told reporters:

An organization like this really needs to be shut down. To suggest that this organization is going to help someone is an exact obfuscation of the truth, it's the opposite; they're going to harm 90 percent of the people that walk in and out of their door.

Hartman’s position is doubly interesting inasmuch as he is director of the Fairness Campaign, a community group whose website has on its splash page the advice, “Gay or straight, Kentuckians deserve protection under the law.”

In the headline to its print article, WDRB refers to the billboard as “controversial.” But they never say what the controversy is, and frankly the answer is far from obvious. Hartman claims the program will “harm 90% of the people” it essays to help, but he doesn’t say how. Is his real concern the future well-being of the gay community? Does he fear for its survival? Inquiring minds would like to know.

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Howard Portnoy has written for New York's "Daily News" and several national magazines. He has one published novel, "Hot Rain," (G. P. Putnam's Sons), and has ghost-written some dozen books on art and literature. He also blogs at Liberty Unyielding and formerly blogged at Hot Air. Click the “Subscribe” link to have his articles sent directly to your e-mail inbox.